Census will skip those in belfries

September 14, 2003

LAKE COUNTY — Things could get a little batty in Lake County next summer. That's when officials will launch a bat census to try to nail down just how many and what kind of bats inhabit the 24,000 acres in Forest Preserves.

Nets that blend in with the forest will be set up at dusk so that researchers can count the number of bats snared. Another technique uses acoustical bat monitors to record bat calls.

A computer program then analyzes the recordings to plot how many and what kind of bats call an area home.

The $40,000 study, funded by a private charitable foundation that wishes to remain anonymous, could identify 12 to 13 species, said Jennifer Filipiak, a wildlife biologist. One might be the endangered Indiana bat, whose summer habitat could extend to Lake County.

According to Bat Conservation International of Austin, Texas, more than 50 percent of American bat species are in severe decline or endangered.

The group reports that a small brown bat can consume 1,200 mosquitoes in an hour.